Russia scraps nuclear-powered icebreaker The Soviet Union due to sanctions
Russian authorities have decided to scrap the Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker The Soviet Union. It will not be restored, despite earlier plans to use the ship in projects to develop the Arctic or engage it within the Russian Armed Forces.
Rosatomflot's General Director, Vyacheslav Ruksha , shared this with RIA Novosti.
According to Ruksha, the official order has already been signed. He said that the icebreaker could be claimed for offshore projects, but because of Western sanctions against the joint project between RosNeft and US-based ExxonMobil on the Kara Sea shelf, it would remain "out of work."
The General Director of the company said that the icebreaker is superfluous in terms of its power, and that its use in the Russian Armed Forces was not necessary from an economic point of view.
RIA Novosti notes that the Soviet Union was put into operation in 1989. This is a unique project because the ship could be retrofitted in a short time into a combat cruiser. Its power plant was first used in 2002 to provide power supplies to onshore facilities. The experiment was successful, but was found to be unprofitable. In 2004, the Soviet Union was one of three icebreakers involved in research on the impact of global warming in the Arctic.
Due to a decrease in work in the Arctic, the icebreaker was decommissioned. In 2014, the management of the state corporation Rosatom decided to restore the nuclear-powered ship by 2018 for new Russian projects in the Arctic. It was supposed that after that, the Soviet Union could serve another 20 years.
In April, US authorities barred ExxonMobil from cooperation with Rosneft in circumvention of sanctions. In July, the US fined ExxonMobil for transactions with Rosneft.